1. Technical Field
This invention relates to power sanders, and more particularly to a random orbit sander having an air directing baffle disposed therein for helping to exhaust a cooling airflow flowing through an interior area of the sander, to thus help better cool a motor disposed therein.
2. Discussion
Random orbit sanders are used in a wide variety of applications such as woodworking and auto body repair work. Such sanders typically employ a housing, a motor disposed within the housing, a shaft operably coupled to the motor, a shroud coupled to the housing for supporting and communicating with a dust bag (attached hereto), and a fan operably coupled to the motor shaft for drawing a cooling airflow in through openings in the housing and exhausting the cooling air flow through openings in the shroud to help cool the motor. The shroud is preferably rotatably coupled to the housing to enable the dust bag thereof to be rotated out of the way by the user to enable convenient use of the sander.
With random orbit sanders such as described above, however, the cooling airflow drawn in through the openings in the housing is not most efficiently exhausted out of the openings in the shroud due to a lack of some structure within the shroud for directing the air flow out of the shroud. Thus, the cooling airflow is typically allowed to circulate within the shroud somewhat before being exhausted through the shroud openings. Moreover, the lack of structure more closely defining an airflow path out of the openings in the shroud somewhat degrades the strength of the suction force generated by the fan, and therefore the airflow that is drawn in through the openings in the housing.